OpenDoc plug-in for MS Office users

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Software industry group Open
Source Victoria has teamed up with NSW technology company Phase N to develop a plug-in for
Microsoft Office users to view documents in the Open Document
Format.

The solution has been named OpenOpenOffice or O3.

OSV is an industry grouping of more than 100 Victorian firms and
developers providing services for free and open source
software.

Microsoft Office does not support the Open Document Format, the
next-generation standard for office documents such as word
processor files, spreadsheets and slide-show presentations.

OSV convener Con Zymaris said the adoption of the Open Document
Format would enable sharing of documents created using different
office software suites.

Most office productivity suites on the market, including
OpenOffice.org, Sun's StarOffice, Corel Office, Abiword, KOffice
and others, support the format.

"The major hold-out here is Microsoft, which refuses to support
ODF - a decision that seems based on self-serving reasons, to
protect the near-monopoly of their high-priced Office suite," Mr
Zymaris said. "The ones who will suffer are the users."

O3 developer Adam Kennedy said creating a filter for MS Office
to read Open Document Format files was relatively simple.

OpenOffice.org, the free office productivity suite, already has
filters for converting Word documents to ODF. This functionality
was reversed and written as a plug-in for Microsoft Office.

Comment has been sought from Microsoft.

Update, October 24: In a
statement,a Microsoft spokesperson said to
date the company had not heard from customers that ODF was a
priority for them.

"Microsoft strongly supports standards, and will continue to
respond to customer demand," the unnamed spokesperson added.